


Wisdom's Doubt

by SilverScribe



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Breath of the Wild Spoilers, Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Trauma, Gen, Hope, Hurt/Comfort, LITERALLY, Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, breath of the wild - Freeform, mostly canon compliant I think, self doubt, talking to yourself
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2019-06-17 15:57:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15464952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverScribe/pseuds/SilverScribe
Summary: Zelda has many enemies, but the most potent one of all is her own self-doubt.Or how Zelda got a little advice from herself, and found the resolve to face the Calamity after the Hero entered his long slumber.





	1. Memories of Twilight

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings Legend of Zelda fandom. This franchise has been apart of my life for so many years, the majority of my life in fact, that I figured it was time I wrote a story for this wonderful world.
> 
> I was particularly touched by and connected with Zelda's insecurity in Breath of the Wild and so this fic was born as my interpretation of how she may have completely conquered it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

 

With a creaking groan the three Guardians that blocked what was left of the east gate of Castle Town fell before her, their singular eyes flickering and fading as the Malice that infected them was obliterated by the light of her being. Shimmers of golden energy crackled across her upraised hand and all around her body before fading and receding back into her form. Receded but still there, right at her fingertips, ready to surge forward anew at her call. After all the bitter years she’d spent desperately trying to achieve this power it now came so easily to her. She could almost laugh at the unfairness of it all. But this…

This was no place for laughter.

She picked her way around the hulking Guardian corpses and entered the town she’d desperately fled with Link not all that long ago. She knew it would be bad, she knew nothing would have been spared. She’d already passed through the Rauru Settlement on her way here from the Lost Woods, she’d already seen how little the Guardians left behind, but it still didn’t quite prepare her. There didn’t seem to be any other Guardians in the immediate area now, despite the fact that they’d been swarming when she’d fled earlier, they’d likely scattered across the countryside to hunt… to hunt her people. But one thing was omnipresent.

Fire.

Fire and ruin faced her at every turn.

There were no intact buildings, only blasted shells, scorched stone and burning rooves where before blue shingled homes and shops had stretched all around. The paved walkways under her bare feet lay cracked and strewn with all manner of debris; It was almost surreal, the contrast of the everyday scattered amongst all the destruction. Bits of clothing danced in the sweltering, fire stoked breeze; small trinkets and other personal effects glinted in the flickering firelight. Toys lay all about, a stuffed bear here or a wooden horse there. Left where they had been dropped, likely by panicked children desperately trying to hold onto any bit of comfort, a favorite possession to shield them from the monsters. But the worst thing...

The worst thing was the bodies.

Dozens and dozens of bodies.

They were everywhere. In collapsed doorways, caught as they attempted to flee, huddled in corners or alleys as they tried to hide. Some lay in large groups, shattered and melted weapons gleaming beside them. They were the ones who had tried to make a stand. Tried to buy others time. Then there were the smaller groups, two or sometimes three or four. Usually the larger bodies in these groups lay overtop of much smaller ones.

Parents who had tried to shield their children.

Princess Zelda of Hyrule fell to her knees in the burning plaza of her hometown and screamed. Screamed from the sheer need to release the agony lancing through her chest. She’d come here with a purpose, the Master Sword had shown her that her role wasn’t finished, had helped her understand what she must do until Link could be restored. But for what? Hyrule was in ruins, so so many were dead. The champions, her father, her people, and it was _all her_ _fault_.

“What point is there in this now!” she yelled through her tears, fists clenched and pressed against the shattered cobblestones as she knelt in the ruins of her kingdom.

 

“ _So Hyrule will have a tomorrow.”_

 

Zelda leaned back on her knees, her sobs stifled by her shock. Who had spoken? The voice seemed to come from everywhere. She felt a warmth in her right hand, she looked down at the back of her palm. The golden seal of the Goddesses, the Triforce emblazoned on her hand, flared with a brilliant and blinding light. A light that was emanating from the lower left portion of the symbol.

Emanating from the Triforce of Wisdom. The very piece of the sacred relic that the descendant of the Goddess always wielded throughout the ages.

The light intensified and Zelda cried out as it overwhelmed her, she raised her left hand to shield her eyes and then something changed… The smell of smoke left the air, the searing fire driven wind was replaced by a cool and calm breeze. She opened her eyes and found herself kneeling in a courtyard within Hyrule Castle. But it wasn’t her Hyrule Castle… It was different. The architecture was darker and more subdued, towers stood where they shouldn’t be and the grounds were all wrong. The banners billowing in the wind bore the familiar crest of Hyrule at least.

Then she noticed the woman.

Zelda let out a small gasp as she examined the stranger. At least she thought she was a stranger… Much like the castle she now found herself in the woman looked different yet familiar. She was tall, taller than Zelda, and obviously Hylian. She wore a traditional dress of the royal court styled with a white skirt and a rich purple top. But she also wore armor? Golden spaulders adorned her shoulders, her long auburn hair flowing past them in orderly waves. A golden crown lay across her brow, completing her regal appearance and highlighting her piercing pale blue eyes. Zelda opened her mouth to ask the woman what was going on but before the words could pass through her lips the stranger spoke.

“You carry a heavy burden Princess, but it is within your power to bear it. It is your duty to bear it,” the woman said as she strode forward to stand before the still kneeling Zelda. Her voice was the same voice Zelda had heard just before she was brought to this place. Strong, imposing, firm.

“Who are you?” Zelda asked.

“I think you know,” the woman answered. She raised her arm then to display the back of her right hand to Zelda. Even through the long, white gloves that covered her hands and arms it was clearly visible. The Triforce.

“That’s...That’s not possible,” Zelda breathed as she looked up at the woman standing before her, at the sign that identified her as one who carried the blood of the Goddess.

“Why are you kneeling? Why are you shirking your responsibility to your kingdom and your people? Stand up descendant of the Goddess! Stand up and accept the burden placed upon you,” the woman suddenly snapped at her, her stern face growing even harder as she looked down her nose at Zelda.

Something within Zelda broke then. Her royal poise, her reserved and unsure demeanor, her despair and self-hatred, all of it washed away in a torrent of pure burning rage. She shot to her feet so quickly that her golden hair danced around her shoulders and she leveled a piercing glare up into the eyes of her accuser. She barely came up to the other woman’s shoulder, she probably looked as imposing as a newborn Rito fluffing out its feathers, but she didn’t care.

She was livid.

“Shirking my responsibilities!?” she roared into her counterpart’s face. “I’ve spent _every moment_ of my life weighed down by responsibility. Every moment since my Mother’s death _knowing_ that the very fate of my people lay upon my shoulders. I’ve accepted this burden with every breath I’ve taken, and you know what? _I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS!_ ”

Zelda’s shoulders were heaving, the echoes of her rebuttal were still reverberating off the castle walls, but the woman in front of her simply smiled. At first it sparked her rage anew, but then she saw something in her eyes.

A deep sadness.

“None of us asked for this,” she said, and in that moment her voice seemed to contain countless multitudes. “But if we had never taken up this mantle in time out of memory then there would be no Hyrule, no Hylians, there would be nothing. Nothing but hatred and misery and suffering.”

Zelda was startled then as the taller woman stepped forward and wrapped her in a tight hug, pulling her close and resting her chin in Zelda’s hair.

“There is still fire in you yet, that I am happy to see,” she said with a small laugh and with it Zelda felt all the anger drain out of her as she returned the embrace, burying her face in her counterpart’s shoulder as fresh tears leapt to her eyes. “I’m sorry Zelda, none of this is fair to you, but it is something you must bear and it is something that I _know_ you can bear. You are no longer a princess. You are a Queen.” Those last words were barely a whisper in her ear when Zelda’s world became golden light once more and the woman embracing her faded away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter done. The remaining chapters are mostly finished too, well the final one is still in half notes form, but that's why I finally posted this. For some motivation. ;)
> 
> I hope my first foray into writing for this fandom was an enjoyable experience, please feel free to leave any constructive critique you may have. I welcome it and any other comments you may have. :)
> 
> If you wanna scream at me you can always find me on [tumblr](https://silverscribe87.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Memory of Time and Sky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, I'm still alive. Isn't that something? XD
> 
> And so is this story. I may have let it sit for months and months, but one thing I vowed when I returned to the fic writing world is that I'd never leave a work incomplete. And so here's the next chapter of this tale that I'm determined to finish.
> 
> Hope you enjoy. :)

A heartbeat later Zelda’s vision cleared and she was staring down at a set of...stone stairs? She looked up towards the path that lead from the stairs and beyond. In the distance was a town, a town she somehow knew was Castle Town and yet again it was not her own. The rooves were all rusted brown and bright red unlike the pale blues she was accustomed to. Disoriented once again she turned to her rear to see where the stairs she was standing on led and her breath caught in her throat.

It was the Temple of Time.

It made no sense to her mind for it to be in this location and yet here it was. Sweeping walls, intricately ornamented windows, the golden Triforce emblazoned above its imposing entrance. There were some differences of course, the shade of the stone for instance, but it largely looked like the temple she recalled from her youth. The same temple she had visited with her mother years ago. She took a few shaky steps towards the temple doors when a soft melody stopped her. A melody she knew.

A lullaby her mother had often sang for her when she was just a child.

She looked up. Off to the right of the main entrance, perched among the temple ornamentation, was a man in Sheikah garb strumming lightly at a golden harp. His outfit was definitely Sheikah, the Eye of Truth emblem across his chest was unmistakable, but it was very old fashioned. It resembled drawings in the dusty scrolls she’d spent so much time studying more than anything Zelda had actually seen Impa or the other Sheikah wearing. She stood there, transfixed by the gentle, comforting notes of the lullaby until the man finished.

When he did he sat for awhile with his eyes closed, seemingly lost in the same spell the music had placed upon Zelda herself. Finally he stood and stowed his harp, looking down at her and holding her gaze with eyes that even at this distance Zelda could tell were a piercing crimson. He leapt from the temple heights and landed in a easy crouch before her. She jumped slightly, startled at the suddenness of his approach, and took a cautious step backwards.

“You have nothing to fear from me your highness,” the sheikah said in a surprisingly soft tone as he raised a hand towards the cloth concealing the lower half of his face. Zelda’s eyes widened, there on the back of his hand was a glowing emblem of the goddesses to match her own. The sheikah removed his mask along with his head covering and Zelda saw that he was not a man at all. Long golden hair similar to her own cascaded down the sheikah’s back as it sprung free and a decidedly feminine face appeared from behind her coverings. Zelda once again found herself facing a stranger that was at the same time terribly familiar. She had the darker skin and red eyes common among the Sheikah and her face was much sharper and more angular than Zelda’s own, but she was familiar nonetheless.

“Who...Who are you?” she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

“One who has faced the ruin of her people and the destruction of her kingdom just as you do now,” the sheikah answered.

“I imagine you handled it a great deal better than what I’ve managed so far,” Zelda answered with a resigned and self-deprecating chuckle. This bearer of the blood of the goddess certainly looked more capable than she felt, she looked to be a warrior on par with Link. And in this vision or whatever it was -she couldn’t really be here could she?- her kingdom looked prosperous and intact.

“Turn around,” the sheikah commanded.

“What?”

“Turn around and see the fate my kingdom suffered,” she answered, raising a toned arm to point behind Zelda. Zelda didn’t know what she was talking about, there was nothing behind her but a prosperous and sprawling town. Still she turned.

And the world around her changed entirely.

The sky was dark and grim, masses of black clouds swirling overhead. The air was thick and stale, hints of smoke and rot burned her nostrils, and the wind pulled angrily at her tattered dress as it howled around them. Castle Town…

Castle Town was gone.

The cheerful homes and shops she’d seen when she first arrived were replaced by shattered husks and skeletal frames. The cobblestone streets were cracked and marred with filth and littered with...littered with bones. But the worst part...the worst part was the _things_ wandering those streets. They had two legs, two arms and a head but that was the only similarity they shared with natural life. They were desiccated, walking shells of people, shambling along aimlessly. Zelda couldn’t bare to look at them, she turned away and faced the Temple of Time.

Only to see it had met a similar fate to Castle Town.

It was still intact and whole from what she could tell, but the stone was stained and blackened and the entire structure gave off an air of decay. The grounds around it were dead and deserted. Off in the distance Death Mountain loomed over it all, a fiery red halo angrily circling its summit. In a way it was almost worse than what had befallen her own kingdom. She was about to turn to the sheikah and seek an explanation when her entire body turned to ice.

The most horrible, agonized scream she had ever heard echoed from behind her and pierced her entire form. It was like steel grinding against glass multiplied a hundredfold. Zelda squeezed her eyes shut and ground her teeth as a thousand blades of ice lanced through her nerves. What was this? She had to face it, had to know, she couldn’t just stand here frozen! She reached within herself and enveloped her being in the warm, golden light of the goddess. It was difficult but the power came and with it the icy barbs holding her melted away.

She turned and what she saw coming towards her nearly chased the golden power from her grasp.

It was one of them. One of the creatures. Except now...now she could see its face. Like the rest of the monstrosity it was parched and wrinkled and withered to nearly nothing but that wasn’t what struck her. What nearly petrified her anew was its eyes. Its eyes and its mouth. All three were gaping black nothings. Just...empty. Empty, yawning voids. Zelda panicked. Zelda panicked and wrapped herself in the golden power as if she were a child hiding under a blanket. Light crackled around her form and arched between her fingers as she raised a hand towards the creature, intending to utterly obliterate it. But then just before she could release her attack the world seemed to flicker and suddenly she was back. Back in front of a pristine Temple with a bustling and happy town before her, the nightmare creature nowhere to be seen.

Zelda turned to face the sheikah, her heart still racing as she allowed the golden power to ebb and recede within her. “What...what was that?”

“For seven years Hyrule suffered under the near uncontested reign of the King of Evil, that is what you saw. But eventually thanks to the efforts of a hero, a princess and many others who helped them along their way it returned to better times, returned to this,” the sheikah answered with an expansive gesture to the restored landscape around them. “We have suffered such tragedies before and we will suffer them again, but Hyrule and her people always endure.”

Zelda was silent for a time as she took in the pristine, tranquil afternoon that cradled the kingdom around her. She couldn’t help but compare it to the ruin, not the ruin she’d just seen but the ruin she’d left behind in her own kingdom. Would her Hyrule ever recover as this one had? Despite the sheikah’s words she was unsure.

“May the goddesses have mercy that my own land shall heal from my folly as well as this,” she said.

“It is not your folly nor is it any fault of yours, Ganon is the only one to blame, do not take the burden of guilt upon yourself when you already have so much else to bear,” the sheikah offered forcefully, taking Zelda by the shoulders and forcing her to face her directly. Her counterpart’s sharp, crimson eyes softened and a small smile spread across her dark, angular features.

“I am uncertain I will prove as capable as those who came before me,” Zelda said in a small voice, self doubt gnawing at her anew.

“Take heart Zelda, wisdom may be your virtue but I know that there is also a great deal of courage flowing through your veins. You are up to this task, I promise,” her predecessor said, taking her hands and giving them a firm, reassuring squeeze. Zelda smiled in spite of her continued self doubt and returned the squeeze, she parted her lips to thank her counterpart when once again her world was awash in golden light.

 

The first thing Zelda noticed when her senses began to return was the sound of great wings beating through the air, she was fearful at first -was it a beast diving to attack her?- but then her vision cleared and her breath was stolen away. Two massive birds spiraled high above her, one the brightest crimson while the other was a pale lilac. “Loftwings...” she whispered in wonder. She’d read about them in the archives of the royal library. They were a fairytale, a made up fancy to explain the great bird depicted on the Hylian royal crest. And yet here they were, even having nothing but ancient descriptions in dusty tomes to go off of she was certain of it.

Her gaze followed them as they continued ever higher into the sky and she gasped again as their path brought something else astounding into her field of view. Rising in the distance, towering over the landscape, was a massive statue of the Goddess Hylia. Far larger than any she’d ever laid eyes on in her Hyrule. She could make out large structures at its base, a temple complex perhaps, and as her eyes continued to roam the landscape around it she noticed another curious sight. Half built towers surrounded in scaffolding, low partially constructed walls and what looked like the beginnings of a keep. Just as before, without knowing how she knew, she was aware that this was Hyrule Castle. Or rather the beginnings of it.

“They’re beautiful aren’t they? They don’t visit as often as they used to, but it can’t be helped, they are creatures of the high skies after all,” a voice said behind her, Zelda jumped and spun around. Her eyes met those of a young girl...no a young woman Zelda realized after a moment. She was slight and perhaps a few inches shorter than Zelda, she had pale yellow hair and sky blue eyes and she was wearing a very familiar white dress. It looked like a simpler, old-fashioned version of her own ceremonial garb, if far cleaner and less tattered. As her eyes took in the stranger -no once again like the others before her she seemed familiar somehow- she saw the golden seal of the goddesses faintly glowing on the back of her hand.

“Who are you?” Zelda found herself asking yet again, even though it was obvious at this point, she didn’t know any other way to begin. But the answer surprised her this time.

“The first of us, the beginning, I am the starting point for our journey throughout the ages. Well, near enough, you could go a bit further back I suppose,” the pale haired girl answered with a melancholy smile and a voice that carried a weight far beyond her years.

“The first?” Zelda said, looking back at the fledgling Hyrule Castle with a new appreciation. She was seeing the birth of her kingdom, what a marvel.

“You still have reservations about what you must do despite all that has been shown to you, why do you still doubt yourself Zelda?” her counterpart responded.

Zelda hesitated, anxiously toying with a tattered corner of her dress before she finally took a deep breath and voiced the doubts still gnawing at her core even now. “I’m not like you, any of you, I’ve been a failure my entire life and when I finally at long last realize my power it’s only after my kingdom has fallen to ruin and everyone around me has died. Worse still, Link, wielder of the blade that seals the darkness is… Link may never…” She couldn’t speak the words, couldn’t admit that despite her orders to place Link in the Shrine of Resurrection he may never wake again, that like everything else it was all her fault. Her throat tightened and her eyes threatened fresh tears as she bowed her head.

“Oh Zelda…” her counterpart whispered gently, a sad light in her eyes as she stepped forward and took Zelda’s hands in her own. “If any of us was ever a failure it was I.” A soft glow surrounded the girl before Zelda then and for a moment she thought she was being whisked away once more, but this light was dimmer and faded quickly. When it did Zelda gasped and took a few stumbling steps backwards.

It was Hylia.

Her counterpart had been transformed into Hylia before her very eyes.

Zelda had no idea what Hylia looked like, the woman in front of her was certainly nothing resembling the statues, yet she knew this was her all the same. She stood over a head taller than Zelda, her pale golden hair falling in a graceful wave across her shoulders. A sparse string of jewels adorned her brow over a pair of piercing blue eyes and her lithe, slender body was swathed in a beautifully simple white gown that made Zelda’s ceremonial dress look like a child’s imitation. Yes, this was the Goddess Hylia but also...she was someone else.

She was the woman from Zelda’s dream.

The light haloed woman in the darkness whose words she could not hear.

Sparks of anger began to form in Zelda’s belly. This was Hylia, this was the Goddess she’d spent her entire _life_ pleading with. Begging. Desperately asking to hear her, to grant her the power to stop the darkness. She wanted to blame her, wanted to rage at her and something in her countenance must have given that away because Hylia pulled back a hand she had been extending towards Zelda in an offer of comfort and clasped it to her chest instead. A sad smile crossed her perfect face and as Zelda glared up into the serene blue pools that were her eyes she didn’t see the wisdom or arrogance or disdain she’d always imagined from the Goddess.

She saw a haggard and broken soul wracked by sorrow and guilt.

She saw herself.

And just like that her fury was extinguished.

“Your Grace,” Zelda intoned formally as she began to drop into a bow, but Hylia rushed forward and grabbed her shoulders to stop her.

“Do not bow to me Zelda, I deserve no such reverence,” the Goddess said with a wan smile as she pulled Zelda upright. “All your rage, all your sorrow, you would be more than justified to direct it at me; I cannot fault you for that.”

Zelda took a steadying breath and looked up at the very first of her counterparts. “It is no fault of yours that I was unable...that for so long I was inca—”

“You are far too hard on yourself Zelda, but that is not what I meant,” Hylia interjected. “It is through my decision that you are in this situation at all. It is through my failure that you, Link and Ganon are reborn in an endless cycle of tormented conflict throughout the ages.”

“I don’t understand Your Grac— Hylia”

“I was too weak. I was too weak and I found myself incapable of fulfilling the duty entrusted to me by the Golden Goddesses,” Hylia intoned and as she did so a change came over her form.

She was no longer pristine, her white dress was ragged and ripped, torn in a dozen different ways. Her hair was wild and unkept, it’s normal pale golden shine nonexistent. There was a sword in her hand, and for a moment Zelda thought it the Master Sword, but it was different; longer, older and it did not carry the same presence she had sensed before. There was also blood. So much blood. Bright crimson ran down her arm and over her blade and great patches of red accompanied many of the tears in her dress, but the most striking thing was her eyes. Those blue pools had lost all serenity, instead they were filled with fear. Fear, desperation and a hollow resignation.

Zelda was at a loss, but as quickly as the change had occurred it was over and Hylia was restored before her.

“I was too weak to stop Demise, the Demon King whose hatred would come to engulf the one you know as Ganon and whose curse would bind the three of us; I was only able to contain him. To seal him, and even that was a fleeting measure. And so I made you Zelda, or rather I became you,” Hylia whispered with a tender sadness as she gently ran a hand across the curve of Zelda’s cheek. “I renounced my divinity and sent myself, and dear Link, on a journey through the ages hoping that they...that we with the power of the Tri-Force could stop Demise where Hylia had failed. But even that plan, even that desperate act was not entirely successful… Zelda I am so, so sorry for placing this burden upon you.”

Hylia stepped forward to embrace her then but Zelda barely registered it, her mind swam with the revelations she’d been given. Demise, the beginning of their journey through the ages, Hylia’s battle, the origins of Calamity Ganon… Hylia said that Demise’s hatred had engulfed him, did that mean he had been something more once? There were old legends of him taking Gerudo form, legends that would quickly rouse Urbosa’s anger if they were ever uttered in her presence, was Ganon simply a man suffering a fate he hadn’t asked for? Zelda opened her mouth to ask just that but Hylia beat her to her query, seeming to already know what she was going to say.

“Demise’s curse weighs on Din’s Chosen, perhaps more heavily than either you or Link, but that was neither our doing nor within our power to control. Fretting over it will serve no purpose Zelda,” Hylia said as she stepped back and placed her hands upon Zelda’s shoulders. “What you must do is stop him, stop him so that Hyrule will one day see a return to peace and prosperity. You are up to this task.”

“The sword told me what I must do...showed me that I must bind him, but I cannot defeat him. I’m not strong enough, Link was always the strong one and he may never…”

“Fi showed you the truth Zelda and you are so much stronger than you know. It is true, you cannot defeat Ganon without Link’s aid but in turn Link cannot banish the darkness without you. He’s your _partner_ Zelda, not your savior,” Hylia said, giving Zelda’s shoulders a reassuring squeeze. “And worry not, it always takes him awhile, and it may take him a great while yet this time, but Sleepyhead will awake and return to you. When the time is right you’ll just have to give him a little nudge is all.” For a moment Hylia’s voice lost both its majesty and its tired remorse and was simply the breathy amusement of a young woman.

Zelda found the goddess’ smile infectious and grinned up at her as she asked, “Sleepyhead?”

“Ah...Uh...It’s an old nickname I had for...I had for my Link, I always had to wake him you see,” Hylia replied, taking a step back as her cheeks flushed.

Hylia was blushing.

Zelda had made a _goddess_ blush.

She laughed, she couldn’t contain it nor did she want to. She laughed long and hard, deep from her belly until she was gasping and tears of mirth pricked at her eyes. It felt wonderful, it was like a dam had breached inside of her and a great sense of relief washed over her along with her uncontrolled giggles. When she finally mastered herself she found Hylia looking on at her with a mixture of pride and relief in her eyes, and just a touch of lingering embarrassment.

“You are better than I ever was, you have succeeded time and time again where I could not. And you will again Zelda, I know it,” Hylia said. Zelda opened her mouth to reply, to offer her own comfort to the goddess that thought herself such a failure. But before the words could pass her lips the world became blinding light once more.

 

When it cleared she was in a place that she immediately recognized.

It was home.

Home before the Calamity.

She stood in the castle garden, vibrant colors from all across Hyrule surrounding her. Butterflies of various hues fluttered from flowerbed to flowerbed and birds sang to a warm midsummer afternoon sky from the foliage of the trees. It was so overwhelming being here again, being in the place where so many hours of her youth and been happily whiled away, that for a time she didn’t realize that she wasn’t alone.

Until a voice so familiar that she still heard it in her dreams called to her. A voice that made her heart sing and ache all at once. A voice she had not heard in _so long_ , and never thought to hear again.

“Hello, my little bird.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots longer than the first chapter eh? Just one more to go! Although goddesses help me it may take me a bit to cobble it together from my notes after I let it sit for so many months.
> 
> But cobble it together I shall.
> 
> I'd love to hear any thoughts you have on this work, especially since it's my first foray into writing for the Zelda fandom. Constructive criticism is always welcome. :)
> 
> And remember you can always scream at me on [tumblr](https://silverscribe87.tumblr.com/) if you like. 
> 
> Until next time!


End file.
